Ryan Reign (New York Ruthless #4)(38)

“Let’s get those cuffs off her at least. Then we can leave Liam’s coat around her and pull the covers over her,” I suggest. “We’re going to need some supplies for when she wakes up. There’s no food or anything in this place.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Conor snaps.

“Nor me,” Mikey adds and Liam nods his agreement.

I look around the room at the three of them. None of us wants to leave her. I have always tried to be selfless when it came to my brothers, but I can’t now. I need this. “I can’t not be here when she wakes up. I need her to know that I didn’t hand her over to him,” I say, the words sticking in my throat so hard I almost choke on them. I feel like I’m going to break down if they make me argue with them about this.

Silence fills the room as they all stare at me. I know that each of my brothers is in as much turmoil as I am. Each of us is battling to keep a lid on our emotions because she needs us to be clear-headed right now. They all want to be by her side and make sure she is okay. They want vengeance as much as I do, but none of them have the guilt of being the one who allowed the Wolf to take her from right under his nose.

“Okay,” Liam says eventually as he taps Mikey on the arm. “We’ll go. Come on. We can be there and back in an hour.”

Mikey stares at me and there must be something on my face that makes him agree too, because he stands up and walks out of the room with his twin.

“What if she thinks that I handed her to him, Con? What if she thinks I knew all along who the Wolf was?” I choke on my words because the thought that she might have been lying in that cold room all alone, or even worse when that twisted fuck was raping her, thinking that I had let it happen, makes me feel like I can’t breathe. If I never get the chance to do anything else in my life ever again, I need her to know that I would die to protect her.

“She won’t,” he says with a frown.

“He had my fucking room key!”

“She won’t think that, Shane. She knows you wouldn’t do that to her.”

I pull up a chair and sit beside her bed while he removes the cuffs from her wrists with the bolt cutters. I wish that I could believe him.



Conor and I sit watching her for almost an hour before she finally starts to stir. I edge forward in my seat and my heart hammers in my chest as I wait for her to wake up.

Her eyelids flicker open and the first thing I see in them is sheer terror. She turns her head and looks directly at me. The fear that still lingers in them breaks me.

“Jessie,” Conor says softly. “You’re safe, Angel.”

“Where is he?” she says, her voice hoarse as she looks around the room like a frightened rabbit trapped in the paws of a lion.

“He’s not here,” he reaches forward and takes her hand but she pulls it from him.

“It’s just me and Shane,” he adds.

“Shane?” she looks back to me. The confusion and the fear in her eyes almost rips out my heart. Then the tears start running down her face and I bow my head because this is all my fucking fault.

Conor is up off his chair and sitting on the bed beside her. He takes her hand again and this time she lets him.

“He came for me,” she whispers. “He said he’s your uncle.”

“He is our uncle, Jessie. But we had no idea he was the Wolf,” Conor says.

“Did you know?” she directs her question to me and that she would even ask hurts more than I can stand.

“No.”

She stares at me and I can’t tell whether she believes me or not. I figure she’s still feeling the effects of whatever drugs Paul gave her because her expression is almost blank now and completely unreadable. “What happened? How did you find me?”

“Shane realized who the Wolf was after he took you. He had Liam follow him and he found you at that farmhouse and brought you back.”

“Liam is here?” the light flickers in her eyes at the mention of his name.

“Yes. And Mikey. They’ve just gone out for some supplies. They’ll be back soon,” Conor replies.

“And you’re here,” she frowns as she reaches out and touches his face. “Or am I dreaming?”

“No. I’m here, Angel,” he whispers. “I’m never leaving your side again.”

She smiles at him. I watch the two of them together. I am relieved that she is safe and that she seems okay, at least physically, but I am hurt that it’s Conor she still turns to, and that it was the thought of the twins that made her come back from whatever hell she was just in.





Chapter 28





Conor





Jessie lifts the covers and looks down at herself. She is still wearing Liam’s coat and nothing else. I couldn’t bear to have one of us dress her earlier. Even though any of us would have treated her with nothing but love and respect, it just didn’t feel right to be touching her while she was unconscious. Not after what he did to her.

My heart is breaking as I think about what she has been through in the past twenty-four hours. The next time I see my uncle, I will burn his cock off with a blow torch before I crush every bone in his body, and I will let my girl watch while I do it.

“I need to shower,” she croaks, snapping me from my murderous thoughts. I swear if it wasn’t for the fact that she needed us to be strong for her now, me and my brothers would have fucking lost it.